


Replay

by ranora



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-23
Updated: 2014-07-05
Packaged: 2018-02-05 20:57:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1832026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ranora/pseuds/ranora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So I'm no good with summaries so I'll omit this lol</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

It was a lovely, warm summer morning as Steve made his way out into the main kitchen at Avengers tower. It was still quite early, before everyone else should be up. He usually got up earlier to go and run for awhile by himself before he was joined by Sam and sometimes Bucky.

Steve poured himself a glass of milk and drank it, walking out into the large living area that was next to the kitchen as he did. An odd scene greeted him.

Bucky was sitting on one of the couches; a mug in his hands, just staring into the hot chocolate that was in it. He didn't look up or speak as Steve walked over to him.

Steve sighed as he walked over to his friend. It had been two years, two long, hard years since he had found Bucky. But they had been worth it. Bucky was back...but it wasn't the same Bucky that had existed 70 years ago. No, that Bucky would never come back. It had taken Steve awhile before he had accepted that fact. This Bucky was different and always would be. Even though he now able to act much more like a normal person, he still had relapses where he would forget things, and the slightest thing would trigger a panic attack. And the nightmares. The nightmares never ended. Bucky had told Steve that he had nightmares every single night. Steve knew this was why Bucky was now sitting out on the couch, staring into thin air, lost in thought, or trying to not think about anything. This happened whenever Bucky had an especially bad nightmare. It would wake him up in the middle of the night and he wouldn't be able to...or even want to...go back to sleep.

Steve sat down on the couch beside Bucky and was silent for a moment before speaking. "Bad dream?"

This seemed to pull Bucky back into reality. He took a deep breath and looked over at Steve. "Yeah," he said, nodding slowly. "It was actually more than just one...last night was pretty bad. Alot worse than usual."

"Anything you want to talk about?" Steve asked. Sometimes Bucky liked to talk about his nightmares, other times not. Steve always asked him if he wanted to. "No. Thank you though." Bucky stood up and Steve followed.

"Are you going running?" Bucky asked. "Yep! You can come." Bucky nodded.

Steve knew Bucky would probably be very quiet for the rest of the day. That's what the worst nightmares always did to him. They were memories he had to relive night and night again. He never wanted to talk about the really bad ones. Steve knew that Bucky never told him everything Hydra had done to him. Sometimes he wish he knew, but then he'd tell himself he probably wouldn't want to know, that it would be too awful, and probably too hard for Bucky to talk about.

The next few days passed quietly. Then one afternoon Natasha got information about a Hydra base that should be easy to get into. It would mostly be an information gathering mission...but it would also include doing any damge they could to the base. As far as Shield knew, Hydra was almost nonexistent. There would still be the occasional Hydra base they would take down, but for the most part Hydra wasn't showing up very often.

Natasha briefed the team, which was made up of Steve, Bucky, Sam and herself, on the mission.

"This is just going to mostly be a mission to collect data on exactly how much of Hydra still exists. I just need to be able to get into their main computer system. What I need you Steve, and you, Bucky to do is guard the hall outside of the computer room. Once I hack into the database any Hydra agents inside the building are going to be alerted to it and try to come and stop me. But there shouldn't be a lot. Accordng to our surveillance this is a small and pretty much unimportant base. You shouldn't have any trouble taking out the agents. And Sam, I need you to lead a team of Shield agents to watch the perimeter."

They all nodded in agreement. "Piece of cake." Sam said.

Steve grinned. "So are you going to buy cake for all of us when we get back?"

Sam laughed. "Tony's the one with all the money...make him buy it."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "I think we need to stay focused here, alright?"

"Okay, okay." Steve held his hands up in surrender. "So when do we leave?"

"One hour. Meet me on the roof. A Shield team is going to meet us there with a helicopter that will take us as close to the base as possible. Then we'll walk the rest of the way."

They got to the base and into it without any trouble. Natasha was in the computer room, and Steve and Bucky stood careful watch outside in the hall. As soon as she started the hack a team of Hydra agents came running, weapons drawn.

  
The first wave of them attacked Steve and Bucky without hesitating. They were easily taken out by the two super soldiers. When the next wave of agents came, some of them stopped, hesitatating before advancing. They didn't just rush into fighting, this time they went at them in pairs, which made it harder for Steve and Bucky to fight them off, but they still did without much trouble.

Natasha hurried to finish, and once she did, she came out of the computer room and joined the fighting. Bucky yelled to her.

"I thought you said this wouldn't be heavily guarded!"

"Obviously I was wrong! Let's just get out of here!"

They made their way through the Hydra agents as best they could, Steve leading the way, Bucky in the middle and Natasha bringing up the rear.

They made it quite far this way, until Natasha got a little ways away from everyone else because of a Hydra agent that had taken her awhile to take down. She was trying to catch up when a group of Hydra agents came out of a hall and cut her off from Steve and Bucky. Steve looked at her over the Hydra agents as they tried to take cover any way they could.

"We'll draw them away from you...just get out of here! We'll meet you at the extraction site!"

She gave a quick nod.

Steve and Bucky tried to distract the agents' attention away from Natasha, which they succeeded in doing without much trouble. The agents still blocked her way though, so she turned and tried to make her way the opposite direction to try and find another way out.

Once he saw Natasha had disappeared down the hall, Steve yelled to Bucky.

"I think we need to find a way to get out of here!"

"I'm not going to argue with you!"

They tried to get away from the agents but couldn't seem to get very far before they would be met by another group of them.

They went any direction they could to avoid them, and after just a little while they were totally lost, having no idea where they were in the Hydra base or any idea how to find a way out.

"I think we're lost!" Bucky said to Steve over the nosie of gunfire being exchanged.

"You think? I know we are!" Steve grinned slightly despite being quite worried.

They defeated the group of agents they were fighting and found themselves alone for the moment.

"This way." Steve said, walking down the hall and turning a corner. Bucky followed at his side. The walked a little ways down the hall, on the alert the whole time.  
They looked for any sign of an exit or signs that pointed to one, but to no avail. Bucky was about to suggest they double back when a team of Hydra agents stepped out of an adjoining hall and surrounded them. The team was led by none other than Brock Rumlow.


	2. 2

Steve heard Bucky draw a sharp intake of breath when he saw Rumlow. He didn't understand why, and he really didn't have time to think about it.   
Rumlow stepped forward. Steve noticed he looked different than when he had last seen him. He had scars all over his face.   
"What do we have here?" Rumlow said with a slight smirk. It wasn't exactly a question, since Rumlow spoke again before Steve or Bucky could answer. "I should have known if anyone would break into one of our bases it would be you." The statement was directed toward Steve.   
Steve glared at Rumlow. "Why are you even here Rumlow? This is supposed to be an unimportant base."   
Rumlow waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, it is...I just happened to be here today. We use this as a tactical training base and I was here checking up on the progress of some new agents. You provided us with some good practice."   
The he turned to Bucky. "And you also brought back our Asset...we weren't happy about losing our most valuable piece of property."   
Bucky swallowed then looked Rumlow in the eyes and spoke, something he'd never been able to do before.   
"No. I don't belong to Hydra." Bucky took a few steps toward Rumlow and the Hydra agents prepared to shoot should he attack.   
Rumlow held up a hand. "No. I want them alive. Use ICERs only..." Then he looked at Bucky again and shook his head. "I see you've grown defiant. That won't do at all...but no matter, I can fix that easily enough."   
Bucky dropped his gaze and shuddered. He almost felt like taking a few steps back from Rumlow. But then he felt a burning rage inside of him and threw himself at Rumlow and chaos erupted.   
Rumlow attempted to duck when Bucky tried to punch him but he caught most of it on the side of his face. He stumbled backwards from the force of the blow but steadied himself against a wall and had to quickly jump out of the way to avoid another punch. The Hydra agents couldn't get a clear shot at Bucky without the possibility of hitting Rumlow so they focused on Steve instead.   
Steve was able to knock out most of the agents that came at him until there were only a few left. Then one of them who Steve hadn't noticed shot him with an ICER and he blacked out and fell to the floor. The agents quickly went and handcuffed him then went to see if they could help Rumlow.   
By now Rumlow was quite beaten up. He was not match for Bucky in strength or skill so he decided to try something different. He got as far away as he could from the super soldier before speaking.   
"You think you're not Hydra's property?" He panted, out of breath from the fight.   
“Then if you’re not our property then how do you explain the fact that you killed almost all of Hydra’s major enemies in the last 70 years? And you never hesitated to kill them either…you killed without giving it another thought. You think we treated you like you were nothing? What about all your targets? You gunned them down like they were animals.”   
“No! No…” Bucky was panicking. He started breathing hard and backing up, away from Rumlow. “Steve…help me…” He stole a quick glance around him and saw Steve crumpled up on the floor. “S-Steve?”   
Rumlow kept talking. “Do your so-called Avenger friends know what you’ve done? Who you’ve killed? I bet if they did they’d abandon you. They’d despise you. You’re dangerous and you’re a threat to them.”   
“Stop…please…” Bucky couldn’t handle it anymore. He couldn’t focus or concentrate on anything but Rumlow’s words. He slowly sank to his knees.   
“You’re pathetic.” Rumlow said walking closer to Bucky.   
Rumlow nodded to one of the remaining Hydra agents and they shot Bucky with an ICER and he blacked out.   
The next thing Bucky knew was waking up somewhere. He lifted his head up and tried to get up but realized his legs and hands were chained in a way so that he couldn’t move.   
He took a deep breath and looked around him. He was in a large room, which was lit quite well. Almost every item in it was colored shades of black or gray or brown, which made a stark contrast with the white lights. The air was hot and stale.   
It only took him a moment before he saw Steve, who was chained up, hanging by his arms a short distance away. Steve could have stood up easily had he been awake, but seeing as he was still passed out, he was just hanging there, his head down so that Bucky couldn’t see his face.   
Bucky felt a wave of guilt come over him. This is all my fault. He thought. If I had just tried harder and not listened to Rumlow.   
He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of someone taking a deep breath. He looked up again to see Steve starting to wake up. Once he had stood up he looked around and saw Bucky chained up on the floor.   
“Bucky? Are you okay? What happened?”   
“I-I’m so sorry Steve…this is all my fault.”   
“Hey, it’s not your fault…I take it we’ve been captured by Hydra?”   
“Yes.” Bucky surveyed the room as best he could. “By the looks of it, this isn’t the same base we were in earlier…this looks like one of their main bases.”   
“How hard will it be to-“   
Steve was cut off by the sound of a door creaking and opening and footsteps approaching. Rumlow walked into the room, two Hydra agents following him. Rumlow walked over to the two captives and crossed his arms, a pleased grin on his face. He directed his attention towards Bucky, looking him up and down before speaking.  
“Welcome home. Hydra has missed you…and I’ve missed not having anyone to torture that is so…obedient.”   
Bucky swallowed and stared at the floor, not saying a word.  
“First of all I want to see how much of your obedience you’ve lost.”  
Rumlow actually went and unchained Bucky, then stepped back. Bucky didn’t dare try to attack him but he got up off the floor as soon as he was able.   
Rumlow shook his head disapprovingly. “Tsk, tsk. I never told you to stand up.”   
Bucky was terrified now. All the memories of what Hydra and Rumlow had done to him came flooding back all at once and he knew exactly how he was supposed to act…not doing anything unless he was ordered to. He was also furious and didn’t want to listen to a word Rumlow said, but he was more scared of what Rumlow would do to him if he didn’t listen.   
This whole time Steve had watched in silence until now, but now he couldn’t stand to have Rumlow talk like that to Bucky and see Bucky do nothing about it.   
“Shut up Rumlow! You have no right to talk to him like that.”  
“No right?! I don’t think you are in a position to tell me that …besides, he knows I’m right and he’ll listen to every word I say. If I were you I’d be careful you don’t make me mad, because if I’m mad, it’s going to get taken out on him.” Rumlow turned back to Bucky. “Here.” He handed Bucky a tactical knife, and he accepted it slowly. “Stab him.” Rumlow motioned to Steve.   
Bucky gasped and looked over at Steve with horrified eyes before looking at Rumlow again, a pleading expression on his face. He then looked at the knife again and then back at Rumlow, and this time his expression was one of defiance.   
Rumlow smirked. “I know what you’re thinking. You could just stab me. But you won’t. You know you might not kill me before you would be stopped, and you know that you might actually kill me, and either way, you know what Hydra would do to you...and you know more than anyone what we are capable of doing.”   
Bucky dropped his gaze to the floor.   
“Bucky, you do-“ Steve was cut off by Rumlow.  
“You need to be quiet…or else I’m going to hurt him for it.”  
Bucky didn’t know what to do, and he just stood there, staring at the knife in front of him. He knew he couldn’t hurt Steve…no, he could never do that knowingly. He wanted to attack Rumlow, but he knew that what Rumlow had said was right. Hydra would punish him awfully if he hurt Rumlow, but they’d also punish him if he didn’t stab Steve as ordered. After a moment of debating the options in his head, he swallowed and dropped the knife onto the ground, hearing a dull clang as it hit the floor.   
“I-I won’t hurt Steve.” His voice was shaky, betraying how scared he actually was at disobeying Rumlow.   
“Alright…but you are going to regret that decision. You’re going to regret a lot of things. Things you know that you’re going to have to be punished for. And I have a feeling you’re not going to enjoy that very much…but I am. But that’s all for today…I’ll see you both tomorrow.”   
“Wait.” Bucky had to use all the courage he had to speak to Rumlow.   
“What?” Rumlow replied in an annoyed voice.   
“W-what about Steve?”   
“What about him?”   
“What are you going to do with him?”  
Rumlow shrugged. “Hydra doesn’t need him for anything…the only reason why he is still alive is so that I can make him watch you be tortured and humiliated and then I’ll kill him…slowly. And I’ll make you watch.”


	3. 3

Then Rumlow swiftly turned and walked out the room, saying something to the Hydra agents before leaving. They promptly went and chained Bucky up again before leaving.

Bucky didn’t fight back despite the desperate urge to do so. By now he was already starting to lose all the humanity he had gained in the past two years. He knew what was going to eventually happen and that if he fought back it would only make it worse. He hadn’t quite given up yet but didn’t know what else to do.

For the moment he just sat in silence, not knowing what to say, and it was Steve who broke the silence.

“Hey Buck? Are you okay?”

Bucky nodded slightly, not looking at Steve.

“So do you have any idea what the best way out of here is? We should make a plan to escape.”

Bucky looked up at Steve with eyes that seemed full of defeat.  “Steve…we aren’t going to get out of here. Major Hydra bases are some of the best guarded and secure that there is. Besides...even if there was a way to escape I wouldn’t know about it…I never tried to escape.”

Steve felt awful hearing Bucky talk like that but he tried to encourage him despite his own concern that they wouldn’t escape. “Oh, come on, there’s got to be a way out of here, we just have to find it!”

“How? There’s no way either of us can get out of these chains.”

Steve knew Bucky was right, and he didn’t really have anything else to say that he thought would help so he remained silent.

 

 After a while both Steve and Bucky fell asleep. They were awakened the next morning by Rumlow coming in. He walked right over to Bucky and unchained him. This time Bucky didn’t stand up until Rumlow ordered him to. Once he did Rumlow glared at him for a moment, but Bucky didn’t look him in the eyes once.

Rumlow grinned. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to today. First of all, take off your shirt.”

Steve felt like he had to say something. “Bucky you don’t have to listen to him…”

Rumlow shot Steve an angry glare. “Oh, he’s going to listen. Aren’t you?  ”

Bucky nodded slowly. “I’m sorry Steve…but I have to…”

Steve knew Bucky was too scared of Rumlow to disobey him and there was nothing he could do to change that right now.

Rumlow smiled at Steve. “See, told you.”   Then he looked back at Bucky. “I’m waiting…hurry up.”

Bucky obeyed, and Rumlow smirked smugly, then spoke to Steve again. “Do you want to see how obedient he really is?” Rumlow yelled for someone outside of the room and they came in, carrying a syringe in their hand. He handed it to Rumlow and walked back out.

“Hold out your wrist.”

 Bucky hesitated and quickly glanced back at Steve. “Please…please, does….does Steve have to…to watch? Please…”

Rumlow seemed quite amused. “Yes, he has to watch. Why don’t you want him to?”

Bucky hung his head and remained silent.

“Answer me!”

“B-because it’s h-humiliating. I-I don’t want him to watch…”

“Well, he is going to watch…he is going to watch the whole time…watch you writhe and scream in pain. And you are going to be very humiliated before the day is over.”

Bucky whimpered and Steve felt his heart drop. He knew Bucky never wanted him to see him like this, and yet now he was going to have to.  But there was nothing he could do about it.

Rumlow repeated the order to Bucky. “I thought I told you to hold out your wrist?”

Bucky obeyed, holding out his wrist to Rumlow.

Rumlow grabbed it and injected whatever was in the syringe into it.

Bucky watched in silence as the fluid in the syringe was forced into his bloodstream. When Rumlow was done and had pulled the syringe out of his skin, he dared to ask Rumlow two questions. “W, what is it? What does it do?”

“Do you really want to know?”

Bucky bit his lip before he spoke. “Yes…”

Rumlow turned to Steve. “And what about you? Do you want to know what it’s going to do to your friend here?”

Steve didn’t say anything, he only gave Rumlow a fierce glare.

“It’s platypus venom, which just happens to be one of the most painful animal venoms in the world. It’s not lethal…but it does cause swelling and extremely excruciating pain. And my favorite part-it causes focal hyperalgesia, which, to sum it up quickly, is increased sensitivity to pain around the wound…and it lasts for up to a month. And, just so you know…since it only causes pain to be intensified around the entry site, later on I’m going to give you another injection of something else that causes complete, body-wide hyperalgesia…so that whatever I do to you will only hurt much, much more.”

Bucky closed his eyes tightly and let out a small sob. Then his eyes snapped open quickly for a moment and he gasped and reached out to grab his wrist with his metal arm. He could feel a burning pain starting in his wrist where Rumlow had injected the venom, and it kept growing worse by the second. He winced and closed his eyes again. The pain spread out from his wrist and up his arm. Bucky sank to his knees, clenching his teeth.

Rumlow was clearly enjoying all this. He glanced up at Steve and grinned.

Steve could barely handle to watch Bucky in so much pain, and to know that he actually just let Rumlow do this to him made it even worse. He wanted to look away, but he knew Rumlow would probably do something awful to either himself or Bucky so he forced himself to watch it all.

By now Bucky was trying to stifle cries of pain through clenched teeth. There were tears streaming down his face. It only took a few more minutes before he collapsed onto the floor. He realized that he could barely move the arm the venom had been injected into. If he had been looking at his arm he would have seen that it was very swollen.

And the pain kept growing. It had spread up his arm and shoulder and it was sharp and burning. He stopped trying to stifle his cries, unable to focus on anything besides the pain, and let out cries which soon turned into screams.

Bucky’s screams echoed throughout the room, and Steve almost felt like throwing up. He didn’t know how Rumlow could do this and enjoy it.

Every time Bucky thought the pain couldn’t get any worse, it did. He could barely stand it anymore, and he tried to be able to focus and stop screaming long enough to beg Rumlow.

“Please...make it stop! Please! Stop it!” His words then turned into more screams.

Rumlow casually shrugged. “Sorry, there’s nothing I can do…the venom doesn’t respond to most painkillers, and there’s no known antidote. Besides, even if I could stop it, I wouldn’t want to.”

A louder than usual scream was the only reply Bucky could manage. The pain seemed to have reached its peak, but it didn’t let up at all, and Bucky continued screaming until his voice was gone.

After a while Rumlow seemed to get tired of watching Bucky in pain. He turned and spoke to Steve.

“I’ve got other things to do now. I’ll be back later…and oh, I wouldn’t try escaping. You won’t get far.”

“How much longer is he going to be in that much pain?” Steve asked Rumlow, not taking his eyes off of Bucky, who was moaning in pain on the floor, his metal hand clenched tightly, his other arm lying still at his side.

“The rest of the day. It might start to lessen up by the evening, but it will last through the night. And if you don’t like watching this…just you wait until later. You’ll probably end up wishing I would just kill him.”

Then Rumlow went and kicked Bucky in the side. “You hear that? It’s going to keep hurting all day.”

“No…please…please…”

“You are so pathetic! Look at yourself! You’re one of the most dangerous things in the world and yet here you are, begging and pleading like some helpless child.” Rumlow then turned and left the room, slamming the door on his way out.


	4. 4

Bucky was terrified of having to spend the night dreading what Rumlow was going to do to him, but he knew he was going to have to. He still had a burning pain in his arm that wouldn’t go away, but thankfully it wasn’t as bad as before.

Steve couldn’t stop thinking about what Rumlow had said. He wondered if it was true, if Rumlow had actually made Bucky break his arm. He didn’t want to have to ask Bucky about it, but it stayed on his mind so long that he had to.

“Bucky?”

“Yes.”

“Did, did Rumlow actually make you, uh, break your arm?” 

Bucky sighed and closed his eyes.

“If you don’t want to talk about it-“

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Yes…he told me to break my arm and I did…” Bucky’s voice didn’t sound the same anymore. It was soft and quiet and had no life in it.

Steve felt horrible knowing that Bucky had once been forced to break his own arm. Bucky had never told him that and he figured it was probably because he was too embarrassed to admit that he had actually obeyed Hydra to that extent.

 Steve was starting to grow exhausted from having to stand for so long. He didn’t really care though, he had been exhausted before. And he knew it was nothing to complain about since Bucky was in so much more pain then he was. And Rumlow hadn’t even bothered to tie Bucky up. He knew that by now Bucky was already so broken again he wouldn’t try to escape.

After a bit Bucky curled up on the floor and closed his eyes but couldn’t fall asleep because of the pain he was still experiencing. Steve didn’t sleep much, seeing as he had to remain standing. He would fall asleep for a bit only to wake up before he fell into any kind of deep sleep.

Neither of them had any kind of idea as to whether it was day or night, or even how much time had gone by until Rumlow returned, but when he came back Steve figured that must means that it was morning. This time he was joined by a few Hydra agents.

He walked over to Bucky right way, and kicked him in the side. “Sit up.”

Bucky attempted to sit up but his arm was still a little paralyzed and hard to move so he had trouble doing it.

Rumlow rolled his eyes at Bucky’s attempt to sit up. He grabbed a handful of Bucky’s hair and pulled him up by it, Bucky letting out a yelp as he did. 

Rumlow let go of Bucky’s hair and stepped back. Bucky steadied himself and then just sat there.

Then Rumlow walked over to a bunch of shelves by the door. Bucky watched him out of the corner of his eye.

 He pulled something from one of the shelves and brought it over to Bucky. The moment Bucky saw it he took a sharp intake of breath and starting breathing hard, then started muttering quietly to himself.

“No, no, no, no….no…no, no.”

The item Rumlow had brought over was a whip…it was made of 9 short strands of metal that had barbs all along it. Steve noticed it had an on/off switch on it indicating there was something about it that probably involved electricity.

“Rumlow, don’t do this to him…please, don’t…please, I’m begging you.”

At first Rumlow didn’t seem to care about Steve’s pleas but then he stopped in his tracks and appeared lost in thought.

After a moment of silence he spoke. “Alright, I won’t do it.”

Steve felt a wave of relief for a minute then wondered why Rumlow would agree to not do it so easily.

“You do it.”

Steve’s heart felt like it had dropped to his stomach. “What?”

“I’m giving you a choice. Either you can give him ten lashes or I’ll do it, and I promise you it’ll be far more than ten.”

Bucky had been listening and he now looked up at Steve, his eyes wide and pained.

“Buck-“ Steve was cut off by Rumlow.

 “No…you can’t talk to him.”

Steve closed his eyes, weighing the choices in his mind. He knew that Rumlow would probably be awfully cruel to Bucky...and here Steve had a way to make it easier for Bucky…but he was going to have to hurt Bucky to help him…and he wasn’t sure he could even do that. He opened his eyes and looked at Rumlow.

“I’ll do it.”

Rumlow grinned. “This should be interesting to watch. And don’t you dare go easy on him or I’ll just make you do it more.”

Steve nodded as Rumlow approached him and let his wrists free from the chains. The Hydra agents in the room drew weapons and kept them trained on Steve the whole time.

Rumlow shoved the whip into Steve’s hand and he took it, feeling tears starting to well up in his eyes as he looked at it and saw how much it was going to hurt Bucky.

Then Steve watched as Rumlow adjusted the chains so that they came down lower. Rumlow nodded to Bucky. “C’mere.”

Bucky stood up and walked over to Rumlow who locked the chains onto his wrists and ordered him to kneel down.

Bucky obeyed with a small whimper. The chains were low enough so he could easily kneel on the ground, but both his arms were raised above his head.

“Whenever you’re ready, Cap. You just have to turn it on first.”

  


	5. 5

Steve turned the switch to the one position and heard electricity crackle through the whip. He walked closer to Bucky.

“I’m so, so sorry Bucky…”

He heard a loud sob come from Bucky in reply.

Steve took a deep breath. He could feel hot tears starting to sting the corners of his eyes. Then he took position and struck Bucky on the back with the whip. 

Bucky clenched his teeth to try and stifle a scream as he felt the whip rip through the skin on his back and the electricity shock him.

Steve struck Bucky again and felt tears start to run down his face as he did. The skin on his back had started to shred and blood starting to flow down Bucky’s back.

This time Bucky couldn’t stifle the cry and he screamed. Then he arched his back to brace himself for the next lash.

Steve’s vision was blurred by tears. He threw the next lash at Bucky’s back and felt sick when he heard Bucky’s scream. It was even louder than the last one. Steve started to feel sick looking at it all…the blood running down onto the floor, Bucky’s screams, the shredded skin, and the fact that he was the one causing it all. 

Rumlow watched it all with an amused expression, clearly enjoying himself.

Steve stopped for a moment. Then he struck Bucky again. And again. 

Bucky screamed louder each time. After Steve finished the fifth lash Bucky could barely stand it anymore. “Please…stop it! It hurts, it hurts…please…stop.”

This almost made Steve throw up. To hear Bucky beg for him to stop…it was almost more than he could handle. He swallowed and blinked back more tears before again striking Bucky’s now blood-stained back.

This time Bucky shrieked as the whip tore through his skin and the electricity went through his back. He started begging again. “Stop…please…please…it hurts…Steve it hurts, it hurts…please make it stop…please Steve…please…” Bucky panted out the words as best he could. He was breathing hard and barely able to speak because of the pain. He could feel the sticky, hot, blood running down his back and starting to gather in a pool around his legs.

Before Steve could strike Bucky again Rumlow spoke. “Strike him harder.”

Steve looked at Rumlow. “But isn’t it already bad enough?”

“Do as I say or I’ll take over…”

Steve choked back more tears as he turned to Bucky again.

He clenched his teeth as he struck Bucky again, this time harder than before, and Bucky’s reaction was the worst yet.

Bucky shrieked. The shriek was one full of total agony. Bucky was in so much pain he felt sick and threw up stomach acid onto the floor. 

 Steve just tried to not think about it and get through it all so it’d be over. He struck Bucky for the eighth time.

Bucky screamed again, then started to plead again. He didn’t know what else to do and because of the pain he wasn’t quite thinking right anymore. His mind went back to its old programming where he always assumed he had done something wrong. “No…please…sorry…I’m sorry...” was all he could manage. His voice was hoarse from screaming and from not drinking anything since he’d been there.

Rumlow spoke. “For the last two I want you to do it as hard as you can. And I’ll be able to tell if you are or not...so don’t try to fake it.”

“Rumlow…do you realize what that would do to him?”

“Obviously…that’s why I’m telling you to do it. So hurry up and do it!”

Steve took a very deep breath and prepared to lash Bucky again. He watched Bucky’s back arch, bracing for the pain. He struck almost as hard as he could…only holding back a very little.

This time Bucky’s scream lasted even after Steve had pulled the whip away. Steve struck Bucky for the tenth time. It seemed to him this had taken forever for him to do, even though in reality it hadn’t taken very long at all.

After Steve finished Rumlow came and unlocked the chains from Bucky’s wrists and let him fall down onto the ground into the pool of blood that had gathered below him. He fell to the ground with a hoarse cry.

 Rumlow gestured to the Hydra agents. Two of them lowered their weapons and came over to where Bucky was. They grabbed his arms and dragged him away from the chains and out of the room.

“What are you doing? Where are you taking him?” Steve questioned.

“Oh don’t worry…we’ll bring him back later.”

“What are you going to do with him?”

Rumlow didn’t say a word in reply. He just adjusted the chains and chained Steve up again, dropping the whip at his feet, before leaving with the remaining Hydra agent.

Steve starting crying. He couldn’t believe what he had just done. He stared at the whip on the ground close to him. It was surrounded by a pool of blood and there was a trail of blood leading out of the room from where the agents had dragged Bucky away. He had done this. It was not in his nature to do this to anyone, and yet he had done it to Bucky. The person he tried to protect from being hurt more than anyone else, even himself. He wondered what Bucky would think now…would he understand why he had done it? And then he started to wonder what they were going to do to Bucky now.

 

Bucky was dragged into a much smaller room. It was a lot darker than the one he had just been in. He could barely see anything. The agents left him there and then walked out. He lay sobbing on the floor. After a few minutes Rumlow came in and turned on the lights. 

 “Well, well, well. Here I bet you thought Steve was your friend and look what he just did to you.”

Bucky tried to speak through sobs. “S-Steve, i-is my f-friend.”

“Then why would he hurt you?”

“I-I don’t know…”

“He’s not your friend. Think about it. Who was it that caused you to never come back to us two years ago?”

“Steve?”

“And since you never returned…that’s why you’re being punished right now. So, it’s all Steve’s fault. All of this. Do you still think he’s your friend now? He sounds more like an enemy.”

“B-but I thought everything always w-was m-m-my fault.”

“It is.”

“But you said it was S-Steve’s f-fault.”

“It is.”

“I-I d-don’t understand.” Bucky was still in too much pain to be able to think right and he was actually starting to believe everything Rumlow was saying.

“Aww…then I’ll explain it for you.”   

 Rumlow went out in the hall for a few moments and returned with two Hydra agents. “Beat him. Broken bones are perfectly fine. In fact, make sure you break at least a few.”

Bucky whimpered. “Wait…no, don’t. I-I’m sorry…I’m sorry…just please no…please…”

“You don’t have a choice in the matter…but go ahead and beg all you want. I find it amusing. And I see you’ve starting apologizing for everything again, just like you used to…which is good…but it’s not going to get you anywhere.”

Bucky bit his lip then shut his eyes as the agents approached him. He tried to curl up into a ball but it hurt his back so badly to move even in the smallest way, so he just tucked his head down and waited for the blows to come. And they did. And he screamed and begged.

Rumlow just stood by, watching. Every once in a while he would speak.

“This is happening to you because of Steve…it’s all his fault. He never was your friend...”

He kept saying things like that the whole time until he finally ordered the agents to stop.

Once they were finished Rumlow ordered the two agents to tie Bucky up. And they did in the most uncomfortable and painful way possible.  

They dragged him back to the room with Steve. Steve couldn’t believe how much more awful Bucky looked. He had black and blue bruises and swelling everywhere. There was blood streaked all over his face.

Rumlow came and unlocked the chains from Steve’s wrists.

 


	6. 6

Steve looked at him, puzzled. “What are you doing?” he inquired.

“You’re free to move around the room…and I can assure you the room is escape proof.”

Steve rubbed his wrists where the chains had been. He watched Rumlow leave then went and kneeled down by Bucky, who had his eyes closed and hadn’t been paying attention.

“Bucky! Are you okay? What did they do to you?”

Bucky slowly opened his eyes. When he saw Steve he tried to shy away.

“Hey, Bucky, I’m not going to hurt you…is there anything I can do to help you?” Steve glanced around the room. “Maybe there’s something I can find in here to help clean up some of the blood.” Steve reached out his hand to examine a cut on Bucky’s shoulder.

“No! No…get away from me!” Bucky pushed himself as far as he could away from Steve.

Steve felt awful. He wondered if this was all just because he had whipped Bucky, or did they do something else to him to make him like this? He spoke again, this time in a much softer voice.

“Bucky…I’m so, so sorry about what I did to you…but I did it to help you…Rumlow would have hurt you even worse if I didn’t…didn’t do…that…I would never, ever want to hurt you…you’re my best friend.”

“You’re not my friend.” Came the cold reply.

Steve’s heart sank. No, this couldn’t be happening. He closed his eyes and just sat there for a moment. Then he opened them and looked at Bucky again.

 “Bucky…even if you don’t believe I’m your friend, I’m going to try and help you…but I am you friend…no matter what you think, I’ll always be your friend.”

Bucky just closed his eyes and ignored Steve.

Steve didn’t want to believe this was happening. To have Bucky act like Steve was his enemy again…no. No. Steve wouldn’t let this happen. He’d have to try somehow to convince Bucky that he was still his friend. But he didn’t know how.

He sighed and stood up and starting looking around the room for anything he could use to clean the blood off of Bucky with. After a few moments of searching he found a cloth of some sort on a shelf. He had assumed he might find something that was dirty and torn, but surprisingly the cloth looked brand new, which he was happy about.

Then he started looking for some source of water; the rag wouldn’t be much use without it, since most of the blood on Bucky was almost all dried by now. He was about to give up the search when he found some unlabeled bottles full of a clear liquid that looked like water. He grabbed them and the rag and walked over to Bucky.

He kneeled down next to him slowly and set the items down on the ground. He spoke before doing anything else.

“Bucky…you have to listen to me, alright?”

Bucky’s eyes opened and he looked at Steve with a look of cold distrust which made Steve want to break eye contact with him, but he didn’t. He looked Bucky in the eyes as he spoke.

 “I know you think I’m not you’re friend right now…and you probably don’t trust me…but I’m going to try and help you right now, okay? I’m going to try and clean some of all this blood off and clean out your wounds, ‘cause they could get infected.” 

“No! No! You’ll just hurt me!” Bucky tried to get away from Steve, but he was unable to move much because of how he was tied up.

“No, Bucky, I’m not going to hurt you...you need to trust me. It might hurt just a little though when I clean off your back…but it’s not because I’m trying to hurt you, okay?”

Bucky just glared at him. Steve grabbed one of the bottles and the cloth, stood up and walked around to face Bucky’s back. He kneeled down again and then poured some of the liquid onto the cloth, soaking it.

Steve took a deep breath when he looked at Bucky’s back this close up. It was a large mass of blood, torn flesh and dirt. Bucky’s arms were tied tightly together behind his back and Steve noticed how uncomfortable it must be. He took the cloth and starting trying to clean off the sticky blood. He started to apply pressure when he noticed the blood wasn’t coming off easily.

Steve heard Bucky groan and assumed it was because of the shot Rumlow had given him to make pain worse, so he continued without another thought.

Bucky kept groaning and cried out a few times. Steve winced every time Bucky made a noise, knowing that because it was hurting Bucky so much, Bucky would probably trust him even less now.

 After a few minutes he noticed the blood wasn’t coming off very well, so he took the bottle and starting to pour what was left in it onto Bucky’s back. He stopped abruptly when Bucky cried out loudly.

He knew that it shouldn’t have hurt Bucky that badly just to pour water onto his back, and yet it had. He looked quizzically at the bottle for a moment then put poured a little onto his hand then tasted it. He spit it out immediately when he realized it was alcohol. He looked at Bucky’s back with horror.

“Oh, Bucky, I’m so sorry! I promise you, I didn’t know it was alcohol! I’m so sorry…I didn’t want to hurt you with it!”

Bucky didn’t say a word in return.

Steve took a deep breath and went to try and find another cloth, which he was unable to find after a long search.

He finally went and sat down beside Bucky again.

“I didn’t mean for that to happen…”

“I don’t believe you.”

Steve looked away, trying to decide what to do. He had run out of ideas, so he sat silence until he heard the door open. He quickly jumped to his feet as two Hydra agents came in again.

 They pulled Bucky to his feet and half-dragged him out of the room again. Steve didn’t dare fight them…he just stood and watched until the door slammed shut.

Bucky found himself in the same room again. The lights were still on. The agents untied him before leaving and when Bucky sat up he saw that Rumlow was standing in the corner staring at him. He stepped forward towards Bucky.

“So I see you now finally believe Steve isn’t your friend. You’re making progress. I couldn’t believe he poured that alcohol onto your back…how awful.”

Bucky looked puzzled and Rumlow explained.

“Cameras. They’re everywhere in here…but they aren’t very visible…I watched you and Steve the whole time.”

Bucky just stared at the floor and Rumlow continued speaking.

“I know something you might like to hear. Steve actually brought you back to us…he planned the whole thing…just so he could get rid of you. He despises you. He thinks you’re not worth the trouble he always has to go through for you. He betrayed you.”

Bucky had believed Rumlow to some extent, but not fully, earlier when he had been told that Steve wasn’t his friend and this was all Steve’s fault. He still had had doubts…but they were slowly slipping away. What Rumlow just said pushed any last doubts out of his mind. He could feel that some part of him didn’t want to believe this, was fighting against it…but the rest of him pushed the disbelieving part away, somewhere far, far to the back of his mind.

 Rumlow could tell that Bucky believed every word he said. There was a look of defeat and sadness on his face…but it was joined by a look of anger and Rumlow knew that it was directed toward Steve and not himself.

Bucky wasn’t even paying attention to Rumlow anymore. He was lost in thought, angry at Steve but also a little confused by it all.

Rumlow watched him for a moment. “Get up and follow me.”

Bucky followed Rumlow back to the room with Steve, limping along as best he could. He winced in pain every time he took a step. He was pretty sure he had a few broken ribs and by the way his wrist hurt he thought it might be broken or fractured. Rumlow shoved him roughly into the room then closed and locked the door, leaving Bucky alone with Steve.

Steve was doing something in another corner of the room and looked up, startled, when he saw Bucky standing by the door. He came over to him.

“Bucky we have to get out of here. I think I have a plan.”

Bucky looked at Steve with eyes full of mistrust. He didn’t take his eyes off of him for one moment, afraid Steve would do something to him if he did.

 “You can’t escape.”

“I’m going to try. And you’re coming with me.”

“No.”

“But Bucky, you have to. Do you know what they’ll do to us…to you, if we stay here?”

 “I won’t go with you!”

“Bucky! Listen to me! You have to come with me. You’re going to whether you want to or not!

“You...you just want to hurt me again!”

Steve looked quite upset and he turned away. Bucky watched him. He went and stood by the door. Bucky sighed and sat down.

Steve didn’t have very much of a plan, but it was kind of a plan, which was better than nothing. His idea was to try and knock out anyone who came into the room…while the door was still open, so they could get out.

He waited beside the door until he heard footsteps approaching down the hall. By the sound of it there were only two people. He got in position and waited for the metal door to open.

Once it was open far enough he stepped out and attacked the first person, who was Rumlow. Rumlow was not prepared for this and Steve punched him right in the face, causing him to lose balance. Steve grabbed him and punched him again, knocking him out. He let go and Rumlow fell to the floor, unconscious.

The other Hydra agent looked terrified and turned to run away when Steve tried to go after him. Steve was able to grab him and knock him out without any trouble.

Steve went over to Bucky. “Bucky we gotta go right now! Come on!”

“No! I-I’m not going!”

 Steve decided he might need to be firmer, as much as he hated it. “Bucky. You are going to come with me! Now, come on, let’s go! Right now!”

Bucky hesitated so Steve reached out and grabbed his metal arm and pulled him up off the ground. He pushed Bucky in front of himself and gave him a shove out the door and Bucky didn’t try to fight this. Steve grabbed the Hydra agent’s gun on the way out. Steve noticed that Bucky seemed to be afraid of him and even though he was glad that Bucky was with him, it made him sad that he had had to yell at him and actually push him out of the room, but he didn’t have much time to think about it before they came upon two Hydra agents.

He took them both out easily, but it troubled him that Bucky just stood by and watched, not taking either side. Just a few days ago Bucky would have been fighting these agents with such a furious rage. But here he was now, standing against the wall while warily watching Steve fight off the agents.

Steve took a deep breath when both the agents were down and looked at Bucky. “Why didn’t you help me?! I’m trying to get us out of here, you know!”

Bucky didn’t respond but he threw a defiant glare at Steve.

Steve shook his head and grabbed Bucky’s arm again and shoved him forward in front of him.

Steve noticed Bucky walked along very….obediently…and this made him even sadder, knowing that Bucky was only doing this pretty much just because Steve had ordered him to.  As they walked along Steve searched his mind for a way to get Bucky to trust him again.

 They ran into three more agents along the way, all at once, and again Steve was able to fight them off without a problem. After that they neither came face to face nor saw another person all the way out of the base. Steve thought it a little strange, but didn’t think about it much.

It took quite a while to find a door out, but finally they did.

Once they walked outside, they saw they were in the middle of nowhere. The only thing they could see were trees. Trees going on and on in every direction.

Most of the base was underground, and the door was the only part of it visible, along with a small helicopter pad that had been disguised as best as possible.

Steve swallowed. Now what were they going to do? There was no road, no path, no anything that might lead the way. He randomly picked a direction and started walking, nodding for Bucky to follow.

Bucky hesitantly looked behind him for a minute. Then he turned and followed Steve.

They walked. And walked. For hours. Even once it got dark they kept walking. Steve wanted to put as much distance as possible between them and the Hydra base.

    Unknown to Steve or Bucky, one of the Hydra agents Steve had fought had put a tracker on Steve, and Rumlow, along with a group of Hydra agents was tracking their position back at the base.

 

 

  “Wait until it gets light out, then we’ll head out…everyone needs to be ready to leave as soon as I give the order, understood?” Rumlow spoke to the gathered team of Hydra agents.

Rumlow had been slightly injured when Steve knocked him out. He had a very swollen black eye that he couldn’t see out of at all. He wasn’t happy about it in the least.

The other Hydra agents would have laughed at him if they weren’t so terrified to do such a thing to Rumlow. A few of them had to hide grins when he spoke.

“And since I can’t see out of one eye, thanks to Rogers, then I’ll just be leading the team but won’t be able to engage in any combat, so you people cannot mess up, alright?!”

The agents, there were about 8 of them, all nodded.

 

 

                                                           

    Steve glanced over his shoulder and noticed Bucky was started to lag behind. He sighed and turned around and walked to his friend.

Bucky wasn’t looking very well at all. He kept stumbling and he was still in quite a bit of pain, and winced whenever he took a step.

“Bucky, are you doing okay?”

Bucky didn’t answer. He looked at Steve. The look he gave was cold and hateful.

For a moment Steve was sure he saw something flicker across Bucky’s eyes, something that he was sure was a hint of trust that betrayed that somewhere inside Bucky, there was a part of him that still trusted Steve.    

 

 Steve sighed. “I think you need some rest, so let’s find somewhere that’s safe.” He glanced around them. The only thing he could see was still trees. He couldn’t see that far in the dark, but he did see a large pine tree that had boughs that swept close to the ground. He guided Bucky over to it and saw that it would work well. The boughs hung down low, but they created a sort of tent-like area.

They both crawled under the tree. Steve sat with his back against the trunk.

“I guess I should have tried to find you a shirt on our way out…sorry about that.”

In return Bucky turned and lay down on the ground facing away from Steve. This let Steve get a good view of the wounds on Bucky’s back. He hadn’t really looked at them in detail all day and they looked bad. There was still dry blood everywhere, mixed with shreds of skin that were starting to shrivel and dry. 

Steve wanted to try and do something to help, but he figured that right now, the best way to try and regain Bucky’s trust was to do nothing. So he sighed and leant his head back against the tree trunk to try and sleep.

Steve woke up a few hours later and went over to Bucky, who was still sleeping. He hated waking him, but they should get a move on. He gently put a hand onto Bucky’s shoulder and shook him.

Bucky woke up with a start. He looked at Steve with wide, startled eyes. It took him a moment to calm down, and Steve tried to talk to him.

“Hey, sorry I had to wake you up, but it’s going to be light soon.”

 


End file.
